COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It will be a red-state Fourth of July for Barack Obama, who hopes to find votes as well as fireworks in places that blue-state Democrats often bypass in presidential elections.

During the long holiday weekend, Obama is making an all-American swing from picnics to parades in reliably Republican corners of the country, states such as North Dakota and Montana. Both have voted Republican for the White House by hefty margins for almost four decades. Neither state offers many electoral votes – three apiece – but appearances there give Obama the opportunity to argue that he can appeal to voters of all stripes.

“It may have been Woody Allen who said 90 percent of success is showing up,” Obama told a small but enthusiastic crowd of donors at a fundraiser here. “If I didn't show up, I wouldn't get many votes around here. If I did show up, I might get something going.”

Colorado, where Obama spent Wednesday, has unexpectedly tipped from a GOP stronghold into the battleground column this year. Ohio and Missouri, which went Republican in 2004, got Obama visits this week. A second trip to Missouri is scheduled for Saturday, another swing state.

Democrats have made gains in recent gubernatorial and congressional races in the states. Montana's governor and two U.S. senators are Democrats. North Dakota's governor is a Republican but the state's two senators are Democrats.

Obama noted this sort of evolution in parts of the West – particularly Colorado – to his supporters Wednesday night, saying that it had been a chief topic of his phone conversation with former President Clinton earlier this week.

McCain to meet Mexican president at end of tour

MEXICO CITY – Immigration and trade are high on John McCain's agenda as he wraps up a three-day Latin American visit Thursday with a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

The Republican presidential hopeful planned an early morning visit to Mexico City's famed Basilica de Guadalupe accompanied by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush, before meeting with Calderón.

The Basilica de Guadalupe is Mexico's holiest site for Roman Catholics, and Catholic and Hispanic voters are expected to be key swing voters in the November election. McCain's Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has worked to woo Catholics and Hispanics as well after those groups voted heavily for Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primary season.

McCain has said he planned to seek Calderón's help in addressing illegal immigration, a key issue for Hispanic and many conservative voters. The Arizona senator has called for increased security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico was billed primarily as an opportunity to promote free trade in the Western Hemisphere.

He has spoken out this week in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico and the proposed Colombia Free Trade deal currently stalled in Congress. On Wednesday, he said as president he might pursue a possible free trade agreement that would cover the entire Western Hemisphere.

The 'mushy middle' hard to reach for Obama, McCain

WASHINGTON – They're the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.

Meet the “mushy middle,” a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and hard to please.

“Yes, we can!” isn't floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.

They aren't uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don't fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren't typically engaged in politics, and they don't much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic.

“To me, it's not about the party, it's about who is the best person for the job,” says Pam Robinett, 47, from Wellington, Kan., who always votes. Then again, “they'll all lie, cheat and steal to get what they want.”

Talk about a tough sell.

“The country's going to go to hell in a handbasket with this election,” seethes James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla. “I don't think Obama's qualified and McCain's another Bush. Neither of them really have impressed me.”

Both will try.

A recent AP-Yahoo News poll finds that 15 percent call themselves moderates and aren't solidly supporting a candidate. More than half of this still-persuadable middle is made up of independents.

“The center always matters,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. “It matters more this year. Both candidates were nominated because they appealed to independents and moderates, so how these voters make a choice between Obama and McCain will be even more decisive.”

THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting with veterans in Fargo, N.D.

THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderón and holds a news conference in Mexico City.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“The center of the American electorate – moderates, independents and ticket splitters – is an amalgam of disparate interests with the following commonality: all are a few points from the ideological center of the country, and they tend to be fiscally conservative and socially tolerant.” – Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster in New York

STAT OF THE DAY:

Democrat Barack Obama reported spending $26.6 million in May. His heaviest spending was on advertising – more than $4 million was spent buying time for television commercials.

Compiled by Jesse J. Holland and Joan Lowy